Jump to content
Did you know?
  • The original Rudolph did not have a red nose. In that day and age, red noses were seen as an indicator of chronic alcoholism and Montgomery Ward didn’t want him to look like a drunkard. To complete the original picture, he was almost named Reginald or Rollo.
  • The Christmas wreath was originally hung as a symbol of Jesus. The holly represents his crown of thorns and the red berries the blood he shed.
  • The three traditional colors of most Christmas decorations are red, green and gold. Red symbolizes the blood of Christ, green symbolized life and rebirth, and gold represents light, royalty and wealth.
  • Tinsel was invented in 1610 in Germany and was once made of real silver.
  • The oldest artificial Christmas trees date back to the late 1800s and were made of green raffia (think grass hula skirts) or dyed goose feathers. Next the Addis Brush Company used their machinery that wove toilet brushes to create pine-like branches for artificial Christmas trees that were less flammable and could hold heavier decorations.
  • ‘Jingle Bells’ – the popular Christmas song was composed by James Pierpont in Massachusetts, America. It was, however, written for thanksgiving and not Christmas.
  • Coca-Cola was the first company that used Santa Claus during the winter season for promotion.
  • Hallmark introduced their first Christmas cards in 1915.
  • The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on that day.
  • Santa Claus's sleigh is led by eight reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder (variously spelled Donder and Donner), and Blixem (variously spelled Blixen and Blitzen), with Rudolph being a 20th-century inclusion.
  • Outdoor Christmas lights on homes evolved from decorating the traditional Christmas tree and house with candles during the Christmas season. Lighting the tree with small candles dates back to the 17th century and originated in Germany before spreading to Eastern Europe.
  • That big, jolly man in the red suit with a white beard didn’t always look that way. Prior to 1931, Santa was depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to a spooky-looking elf. He has donned a bishop's robe and a Norse huntsman's animal skin. When Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly in 1862, Santa was a small elflike figure who supported the Union. Nast continued to draw Santa for 30 years, changing the color of his coat from tan to the red he’s known for today.
    • Christmas 2018 countdown has already begun. Will you be ready??? Why do we love Christmas? It's all about the traditions. In this chaotic world we can miss the "good old days." Christmas reminds us of that time.

    Cullen Wassell

    Members
     View Profile  See their activity

    • Content Count

      308

    • Joined

    • Last visited

    Community Reputation

    3 Neutral

    2 Followers

    About Cullen Wassell

    • Rank
      Senior Member
    • Birthday 01/30/1985

    Profile Information

    • My favorite Christmas story
      Too many to list at the moment. I'll give it some thought and update when I have the time.
    • Location
      Moline, Illinois, USA
    • Biography
      I'll think of something all worded nice n stuff to put here.... :p
    • Interests
      Anything Christmas, cars, aviation, anything railroad, travel, highway construction, computers, music,
    • Occupation
      Self-employed
    • About my display
      Work in progress.

    Recent Profile Visitors

    The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

    1. Cullen Wassell
      OMG, you have no idea how much I want that nixie tube Fluke meter.
    2. Cullen Wassell
      It sure is.
    3. Cullen Wassell
      I would be making these sets to use inside. I wouldn't use cloth covered wire outside.
    4. Cullen Wassell
      You guys are thinking of the normal green poly sockets for zipcord. The sockets in question here that CDI sells are black bakelite twist-on sockets with pins to pierce the insulation and they are meant for twisted wire. Noveltylights sells them individually and sundial wire sells short sample pieces of all the wire they sell so I may go that route first, for testing purposes.
    5. Cullen Wassell
      Does anyone know if they will pierce into modern cloth-covered wire on their own? Or would I have to "help" them by making a tiny starting slit in the cloth braid with, say, an exacto knife? I found some beautiful red/green cloth-covered twisted wire online, and some beautiful vintage reproduction round plugs on the same website, and CDI has bakelite C7/C9 vampire/pin type sockets designed for twisted wire. Yeah, I've got ideas alright...
    6. Cullen Wassell
      I've posted these pics elsewhere but I'll post them again at the bottom of this post. I finally broke down and bought a set of ceramic C7s from HLE to try. Read on. The standard multi-color pack offered by most of the online stores that sell these comes with 5 colors: red, green, orange, blue and warm white. As is typical with LED, the blue and green are brighter than all the rest, even with the latest retros. Though the problem is not quite as severe as it used to be, it is still very much there and noticeable. It's a 180-degree flip from incandescents: in those, blue and green tend t
    7. Cullen Wassell
      7 colors, "teal" in place of blue. The teal is blue, but a much nicer shade of blue. Bottom pics are deliberately underexposed.
    8. Cullen Wassell
      Go with the HLE bulbs. Use 7 colors, substituting teal in place of blue - red / green / orange / teal / warm white / pink / yellow. A total of 5 'warm' colors and the mellower teal instead of blue should create an overall warm glow. I have such a set of 29 C9s from HLE waiting at the house, I'll be by in a few days to check 'em out.
    9. Cullen Wassell

      Any chance you could get the smooth transparent SMD C7 and C9 bulbs in?

    10. Cullen Wassell
      This was the pic that sold me on the teal idea. (And the 7 colors.) It definitely looks like a nice mellow alternative and actually similar to the way the more recent incan blues light up. By contrast, regular blue LEDs actually seem to give off a bit of a black light effect, and to that end, my neon yellow high-vis vest does in fact glow under a blue LED.
    11. Cullen Wassell
      @hotrod1965 I was doing some poking around in a FB group I'm in and I came over something that might be just the ticket... so I just sent an order your way. Gonna try this... I've been told replacing blue with teal does the trick in getting rid of that typical LED harshness. Ordered a total of 25... 4x R/G/Y/T 3x WW/O/Pi. Having a total of 4 warm colors (red. yellow, orange, pink) should help too...
    12. Big J Illinois started following Cullen Wassell
    13. Cullen Wassell
      Okay, so I realize this is subjective. That being said, I just can't dig the stereotypical hyper-saturated LED colors. No matter how hard I try. I wanted to like that look. I still want to, because it's the future...or is it? Well... I did a little experiment to that end last night. First pic - as they came from the store right after I bought them last year. Second pic - after swapping the globes onto an identical (Energy Smart) warm white strand I bought last night. They look like real lights now. And actually, the warm white strand uses 2.8 fewer watts
    14. Cullen Wassell
      Bumpity bump. I've had these GE LED C9s for a year. Last night, I located a warm white GREEN label (Energy Smart ConstantON) spool at Lowe's. The base design is the same, so the clear faceted globes are interchangeable with the multi-color 'opaque' globes. I swapped them over and this is the result. Much more pleasant, IMHO. Sorry for the crappy tablet camera pic. The charger for my DSLR battery is MIA and she's deader'n a doornail.
    15. Cullen Wassell
      25-2700K warm white LEDs exist. Why the manufacturers are not putting those inside the colored plastic globes/covers is truly beyond me. I often hear fading as the reason, but properly colored plastic should outlive the lights themselves in that regard. I was actually discussing this possibility with @hotrod1965 on youtube. (lt1caprice57l - and yes, I'm serious about my willingness to pay for samples of such if you could get some.) I bought these at Lowe's - they are GE Energy Smart C-6 lights. They come in faceted warm white, faceted multi, and this style, which is by far my favorite
    16. Cullen Wassell
      I'll have to drop by, maybe tonight.
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...